Click here to see Sen. Rob Hogg’s remarks to the Senate prior to the passage of SF 512 as amended by the House. Click here for a Des Moines Register article from yesterday about the Governor’s likely veto of SF 512.
There’s some talk of contract attorneys meeting to discuss our options. If you’re interested in this, please fill out the form. I have a call in to the Iowa Bar to see if they are interested in setting up such a meeting. If they are not, I will assess our options for doing something of that nature. If we do set up a meeting, I likely will only notify by email rather than through a public post here, so please be sure to fill out the form and tell others you know who may be interested but who may not read the Blog to do the same. Thanks.
Everyone affected by this needs to come forward. Without some solidarity, it is hard to organize our efforts effectively to convince those in power the importance of fully funding Indigent Defense.
Pat is right that there needs to be some solidarity on this issue or it will be kicked around like a political football for months. I made telephone contact with Ron Jorgenson, the Woodbury County Representative, and he just made excuses and played the blame game by pointing to the House Democrates. He and the other House members apparently beleive that the next election is a long way away and this issue won’t affect their getting re-elected. Wrong!
I will pass this one to my husband. The one thing I think the Representatives are clearly forgetting is the 1,000 people Sen. Hogg refers to are not the only voters. I have a feeling that the Representatives think – hey, it’s only 1,000 voters across the state – we won’t lose our jobs. How many of those 1,000 are married, how many have children of or will be of voting age at the next election, how many have extended family members, how many have landlords and other services that are affected as well…That’s a LOT of voters… perhaps that should be also used as leverage.
[...] my last post I mentioned trying to have some sort of meeting of contract attorneys from across the state to [...]